Jay Leno's producer showed the greatest interest in the first chapter, "Blacks Are More Racist
Than Whites." This chapter, too, provoked the most interest during my interview with the
"American Urban Radio Network" (the same group Sen. Lieberman recently addressed when he
professed his admiration for Minister Louis Farrakhan).

Are blacks really more racist than whites?

When three white men dragged black James Byrd to death in Jasper, Texas, President Clinton
quite properly called the crime "shocking and outrageous." "In the face of this tragedy,"
Clinton said, "(the people of Jasper) must join together across racial lines to demonstrate
that an act of evil like this is not what this country is all about. I think that we've all
been touched by it, and I can only imagine that virtually everyone who lives there is in agony
at this moment. They must re-affirm, and so must we, that we will not tolerate this."

Thus, the bigots who dragged James Byrd became Exhibit A, a national symbol for white racism
and hatred against blacks.

But what about Colin Ferguson? In 1993, Ferguson, a black man, boarded a Long Island Railroad
commuter train and proceeded to mow down white passengers, killing six, wounding 19. Before the
killings, Ferguson made frequent outbursts declaring his hatred against whites.

But somehow, Ferguson never became Exhibit A for black racism and hatred against whites. In
fact, when Nassau County executive Thomas Gulotta called Ferguson an "animal," Jesse Jackson
accused Gulotta of "stereotyping"! Most Americans, quite reasonably, considered Ferguson an
abhorrent, hateful, deviant murderer, not some symbol for black bigotry. Of course, both cases
-- the Byrd killing and the Ferguson rampage -- are aberrant instances of racial hatred. But
where we see black/white crime, the bad guy is usually black.

In one recent year, the FBI recorded 1.7 million violent acts -- murder, manslaughter, rape,
and aggravated assault -- of interracial crime. Of that figure, nearly 1.2 million involved
black-white crime. Ninety percent of these cases involved a black perpetrator and a white
victim. Thus, blacks, while comprising 12 percent of the population, committed over one million
acts of violent crime against whites. On the other hand, whites, while comprising 70 percent of
the population, committed about 100,000 acts of violent crime against blacks.

Look at hate crime. In 1995, the FBI recorded 7,947 incidents of hate crimes. But blacks,
again while comprising 12 percent of the population, committed 27 percent of hate crimes.
Whites, 70 percent of the population, committed 59 percent of hate crimes. And of the nearly
one million black violent acts against whites, how many were driven by racial animus? During
the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Damien "Football" Williams assaulted white trucker Reginald Denny.
Williams clearly targeted Denny because of his race, even allowing a black motorist to proceed
unharmed. But despite hate-crime laws on the books, authorities never charged Williams with a
hate crime.

Similarly, when a group of black teenagers assaulted then raped the so-called "Central Park
Jogger," few called the assault a "hate crime." Instead, many called the attack a case of
"wilding," a practice where youths go on a rampage.

Are the majority of blacks racist? Of course not, no more so than are the majority of whites.
The point here is perspective. When blacks condemn white bigotry, we must be equally vigilant
about black bigotry.

Blacks face bigger issues. Inner-city public schools need competition. Blacks stand to benefit
disproportionately from the privatization of Social Security. Calling off the war on drugs
will, among other things, diminish the number of interactions between the police and civilians,
decreasing the frequency of "DWB" -- Driving While Black. Screaming "white racism," and
spending time and energy exaggerating its effect steals attention from deeper problems --
illegitimacy, bad schools, high crime -- which have little to do with white racism.